Friday, June 28, 2013

Powerful Functional Legs

It is one of the most solid foundations to have strong,
agile, functional and powerful legs. If you’re in a sport, your legs are your
carryover. You can’t kick a soccer ball, score a touchdown, jump shoot a
basketball or run the bases in baseball without the use of your legs. It is
important to have the best legs possible, not just in sports but in real life,
if you’re in law enforcement you might need to run down a suspect, if you’re a
strongman you might need to use your legs for certain feats like bending or
maybe pulling a large object like a truck possibly. You see way too many guys
in the gym that have flamingo legs meaning large upper body and bird legs.
Never fall for this.

Having a
powerful lower body is essential to the many things life offers but power
doesn't always mean super strong, it’s crucial to also have flexible and supple
joints, tendons and ligaments. I know this all too well because of the recovery
from my accident 8 years ago. I started out with squats but as I learned
flexibility training it became more important. Stretching is a key to lifelong
health so it’s important to find the best ways to keep you from having burned
out legs as you get older. Remember to learn to relax as you stretch, the key
is to release tension because the more relaxed you are, you can be more
explosive and powerful later on.

We all know
the key to superhuman legs is squats but that’s not the only exercise that
builds them. Squats are usually the straight up and down exercise but what
about directional movements or isometric holds for different directions. When
you lift odd objects, your legs aren't always going to go up and down, you need
to move in different patterns to lift certain things like Rocks, kegs, logs and
furniture. You want to keep strong in every direction possible. Think of it
like wrestling; you don’t always shoot in for the kill, you need to shift the
body for certain moves or holds that require flexibility otherwise you’re just
going to be stiff and you’re down for the count.

The single
most important reason the legs need to be super strong is because they also
build crazy lung power which amps up your conditioning. I have repeated it so
many times but certain people need to get this planted into their brain, the
late Karl Gotch has said “Conditioning is your best hold.” This means the more
conditioned you are, the longer you can go and can stay in the game. This goes
for everything. Endurance is essential and yes it’s possible to have big legs
and still have insane stamina (Great Gama anyone). You don’t always need high
volume training to build endurance and certain things won’t build lung power
the way you might think. Powerful muscle and endurance go hand in hand. Keep
your legs strong, supple and crazy powerful because you never know when they
might come in handy when the time calls for them.